13 October 2016
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"The European Commission may end up in court unless it threatens to impose visa restrictions on US citizens. MEPs in the civil liberties committee demanded on Wednesday (12 October) that the commission makes the threat because citizens of five EU states - Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania - still need a visa to enter the US.
"The European Parliament would have a case to take you to court," Dutch liberal Sophie In't Veld told EU migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos....
The EU has reciprocity rules on lifting visas with other countries - if they insist that EU nations need visas, then the EU must impose the same obligations on their citizens.
The commission may trigger a so-called delegated act that would threaten to reimpose visas on all visiting US nationals. But Avramopoulos told the MEPs the EU commission prefers maintaining diplomatic relations amid threats the US would simply impose visas on everyone."
See: We'll sue EU commission over US visa policy, say MEPs (euractiv, link)
And: EU-USA JHA Senior Officials meeting 8-9 September 2016 - EU proposal to "impose temporary visa requirement for US nationals" went down like a lead balloon.
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